How ’Bout That, Sports Fans!

Late autumn can be the most beautiful time of the year. It is also a great time to be a sports fan. College and pro football are in full swing, the baseball season culminates in the World Series, and basketball and hockey get underway. There are a lot of great sporting events to get lost in during the fall, which is a good thing, because it’s also election season, and there is nothing more depressing than campaign commercials.

But sports can be more than just a distraction from a brutal TV news cycle. Growing up, I thought of sports as a parallel educational track that taught me just as much as — if not more than — my formal schooling. Whether you are paying attention or not, you absorb a lot of life lessons on the athletic field.

You learn that hard work pays off. You learn the value of teamwork. You learn that you can do your absolute best and still lose. You learn that crazy, unexpected things happen. You learn that people get hurt. You learn that authority figures can be wrong — that coaches, umpires and referees make mistakes. You learn what nepotism is. You learn that last year’s bitter rival can be this year’s teammate — and not such a bad person, after all. You learn that every once in a while, David really does beat Goliath.

There’s a reason people use a lot of sports metaphors. It’s especially common in the business world, where the relationship between individual achievement and group success plays out every minute of every day.

I remember once consoling a co-worker who was passed up for a promotion she thought she deserved, which went instead to the boss’s son. I didn’t tell her that this was a lesson I learned at age 10, when I realized the coach’s son was going to start at second base, and I had to find another position. At age 13, I learned that the rule about missing football practice meant missing that week’s game somehow did not apply to our star running back. At age 36, I learned that the last-place men’s league softball team can beat the undefeated first-place team in the first round of the playoffs. I also learned that cheap champagne can give you a wicked hangover.

So, as fall turns to winter, root for your favorite team and savor every victory. Remember, as someone once said, life is the ultimate team sport. Now, dust yourself off and get back in there.